CHANDIGARH: Senior Leader of Shiromani Akali Dal (Democratic), MLA and former Finance Minister. S. Parminder Singh Dhindsa said that Captain Government has presented its last budget only for gaining the political mileage and to prepare strengthen their party roots in the forthcoming Assembly elections of 2022.
He said that although this time, the government has tried to paint a better picture of the financial condition of Punjab, but contrary to that economic condition of Punjab has deteriorated drastically in the last few years. Along with slowdown in the economy, fiscal deficit of the State has reached an all-time high apart from the increase in state debt’s graph.
He said that this time the Captain Government has presented a repetitive budget but the only difference is that this time the State Budget had manipulated figures. The former finance minister said this was the last budget of the Captain's government and the focus has been laid on the gaining people’s attraction in the forthcoming assembly elections rather than talking about Punjab’s development.
However, the reality is that Punjab's debt has increased to Rs 2.60 lakh crore during the current financial year. During the last four years of the present government, the state has incurred a new debt of Rs 70, 000 crore.
“If the pace of debt growth remained the same then the average debt per capita in Punjab would go up to Rs. 1 lakh per person in the near future, ” said Sh. Parminder Singh Dhindsa.
S. Parminder Singh Dhindsa said that the issues and problems in Punjab were the same as they were in the year 2017. All the promises made to the people of the state during the tenure of the Congress government are incomplete.
“The government is trying to feed the people only through political speeches. The fact of the matter is that if better plans had been drawn up during the budget presented by the Congress government in the past years, there would have been no need to play on empty promises, claims, or false statistics in the present budget, ” said Sh. Parminder Singh Dhindsa
S. Dhindsa said that the task of the present government is to mislead the people of the state and now people of the state have understood this.